Blooming Along With The Daffodils

 

The tent is up; a sign the Daffodil Festival is around the corner.

Visit #1594, Sunday 19 April 26, 6:10-8:35AM, 3.8 miles, 10.8 lbs. of litter.

Temps in the 40s, light rain.

Today's early start and finish were necessary so I could return home in time to watch the last 40 miles or so of the Netherlands spring bicycle racing classic Amstel Gold. Now get your brain out of the gutter; we're not watching beer, we're watching a bicycle race!

Just like parts of the race, there was light rain on today's hike. During last week's hike, when I was made aware of spray painted hearts on rocks in the park, I suspected if I looked in the right places I would find more. So I packed spray paint just in case. I was not disappointed. In fact I found more than red hearts; way too many tags to count, all red. I think I covered them all.

Foam stickers numbers 19-22 for 2026 were removed.

And I continue to be appreciated although I don't resemble that plate.

I found and removed Cat Graffiti numbers 24 and 25 since 2016.

At the gate across from Belmont Avenue were a couple new tags. I didn't have brown paint with me today and removing them with other methods would eat into bike race watching time so I used what I had on me. I'll return with brown paint in the near future.

The big task was this new graffiti I found on the walkbridge over I-691.

I knew this would take significant time to remove but I gave it a cursory effort. Not much difference.

Using my conventional methods would take forever so I left it for now and vowed to return later in the day with my industrial cleaner to complete the job.

On the way back to the park I cleaned up the dirt parking area and collected quite a bit of litter. There was no way I was going to add it to this trash can which was already way beyond capacity, so I brought this week's collected trash home.

The photo above was taken at roughly 8:30AM. When I returned to the park at 5PM it still looked like that.

I did return later Sunday afternoon and vanquished the graffiti on the walkbridge. Except for hiking to and from the walkbridge, my scrubbing time was twenty minutes.

Here's hoping there's good weather for the next two weekends for the Daffodil Festival.

It's Enough to Give Me a Migraine

 Visit #1593, Sunday 12 April 26, 6:05-8:30AM, 3.6 miles, 3.0 lbs. of litter.

I'm fortunate enough to have other hikers in Hubbard Park that assist me at times by removing unsightly things on the trails and informing me of issues beyond their abilities such as fallen trees. Their help is priceless. This week I received valuable information from one hiker which guided my hiking decisions for Sunday.

That person told me a rock where I'd previously painted over graffiti, had been graffitied (yes; that's a word!) again.

But that didn't take the cake. Just beyond this rock, they told me I had been slandered by my nemesis and ne'er do well who also lacks spelling and grammar skills.

He's used the wrong form of "your" vs. "you're" before, among other self-embarrassments. "Hugger" seems to be a stumbling block of theirs as well.

As if maintaining the trails isn't enough, I have to be the Grammarian of Hubbard Park too?!

Hiking to today's points of interest I found and removed Foam Sticker #18 of 2026. Note the red paint. I covered that as well. Red paint would become one of the themes of today's hike.

I reached the rock and addressed the heart of the matter with the appropriate color of spray paint.

The fallen, and misspelled tree(s) was/were within eyesight. I can't believe I'm being taunted for volunteer work! It's a cold world out there...

Here they are in mid-removal.

Another fine job completed. Your/You're welcome! 

Then it was on to following this dubious individual's illegal trail to see what I could find. I discovered and covered 13 red trail markers, and this short lived tribute to me!

He also "blessed" this trail with another religious tract. I've counted twelve so far.

Another thing I keep track of is the Cat Graffiti I find and remove. Here is #23 since November 2016.

And another theme of today's hike was socks; I kept finding socks.

I'm fortunate that all this red spray paint, taunting, and trail maintenance doesn't give me any headaches. Otherwise I might have abandoned today's hike and participated in the Miles for Migraine 5k race being held today in Hubbard Park. When I arrived at the park at 6AM they were already setting up for the event.

Instead, I ease my pains by enjoying the views.

 

My Easter Egg Hunt

 

I knew where the eggs were hidden.

Visit #1592, Saturday 4 April 26, 7:20-9:55AM, 4.3 miles, 6.2 lbs. of litter.

Temps in the 50s, sunny and comfortable.

I was quite surprised at the number of people I encountered on the trails, particularly since it was early morning.

This week I was on the hunt to correct things I found but was not equipped to address last week.

Stickers keep appearing on this particular guardrail as well as on nearby fence posts. I removed them again this week, and I'm trying a secret method to thwart future stickers, which I can't divulge. Of course I removed these this week and we'll keep an eye on our progress.

Then it was on to this illegally built trail. Trail markers get painted; I remove them. I also find unsightly junk hung on the trees which I remove as well.

On this day I covered 13 such trail markers.

Yet another religious tract. That's how I know the same person marking the trail is leaving the tracts.

Borrowing a currently popular phrase, I call it Tract Derangement Syndrome.

I was also on the hunt for the ubiquitous foam stickers. This week were Entries 17 - 20 of 2026.

While the sticker adhesive is aggressive, so am I in removing it, and the sticker.

I predicted the new metal guardrail on the road to Castle Craig would be attractive to graffiti vandals. This week I found and removed the first tag.

While climbing the trail up to Castle Craig last week I found this graffiti on a rock. This week I tried my wire brush on it but wasn't satisfied with the results. I expected this. It was another reason why I carried spray paint this week. I may have to return with a better color match.

I returned to the park with a full Easter basket. See if you can tell what's different in this photo versus

similar photos in previous posts. I'll give you the answer in the upcoming weeks.